The Secret Shelter [Paperback]

Three London teenagers, working on a school project, investigate an abandoned World War II bomb shelter on their school grounds. Accompanied by their history teacher, the four descend into the shelter--and emerge in the Blitz of 1940. Without ration books, identity cards, homes or family, and their teacher in imminent danger of being interned as an enemy alien, the four must find their way out of the past to return to the 21st century. An exciting and accurate time-travel fantasy for ten-year-olds up.

The Secret Shelter was inspired by the air-raid shelter under the front lawn of the school in Penge, South London, where I was the secretary. I often wondered what was down there, and I would have loved to have excavated the site. The Secret Shelter tells the tale of three kids who didn't take an elderly man's advice to leave the past alone.

As the story gives an accurate portrayal of South London in World War II, the book is a useful addition to Key Stage 2 History.

If I’d known then what I know now . . . If I’d known then what I know now . . .

The words pounded through my head to the rhythm of the train wheels.

If I’d known then what I know now . . .

But when was then and when was now? Everything was back to front, topsy-turvy. Now was dull, dismal December 1940. Then—two months ago—had been sunny June 2002.

The train stopped at a nameless village. All the signs had been taken down in case the Germans invaded. I could have told them there would be no invasion and that I knew how the war would end. It was a bit like reading the last page of a book before the middle. I was stuck in the middle of the book now.

If I’d known then what I know now . . . I certainly wouldn’t have agreed to take part in that history assignment. I thought back to how it had all started . . .